“Exactly, and the year covered in the missing journal. Dr. Croix writes to say there were three big digs. One at the Citadelle, to reinforce the walls, one to expand the Hôtel-Dieu hospital and the third? The third was to dig a basement under a local restaurant. The Old Homestead.”
Émile sat for a moment then leaned back in the chair and brought a hand up to his face, thinking. Gamache got to his feet.
“I think I’ll treat you to breakfast, Émile.”
Comeau got up, his eyes bright now too. “I think I know where.”
Within twenty minutes they’d climbed the steep and slippery slope of Côte de la Fabrique, pausing for breath and to stare at the imposing Notre-Dame Basilica. Where the original little church had stood, built by the Jesuit priests and brothers and supported by Champlain. A modest New World chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary to celebrate the return of Québec from the English in their see-saw battle for possession of the strategic colony.
This was where the great man’s funeral had been held and where he’d been buried, albeit briefly. At one time Augustin Renaud had been convinced he was still there in the small chapel of St. Joseph, where the amateur archeologist had found a lead-lined coffin and some old coins. And had started digging without permission, igniting a storm that had engulfed even the church. Père Sébastien had sided with Renaud, to the fury of the Chief Archeologist.
Still, nothing had been found. No Champlain.
Though, strangely, that coffin had never been opened. All had agreed it couldn’t possibly be Champlain. It was a rare show of respect for the dead, by the archeologists, by Renaud and by a church more than happy to dig up Général Montcalm but not this anonymous corpse.
So, Gamache thought as he continued his walk, suppose Champlain hadn’t originally been buried in the chapel but in the graveyard. The records showing the exact resting place of the father of Québec had been lost in the fire, even the exact position of the cemetery was just a guess. But if it was beside the chapel that could put the cemetery right about—
Here.
Gamache stopped. Above him loomed the Château Frontenac and off to the side Champlain himself, imposing and impossibly heroic, staring out across the city.
And in front of the Chief? The Old Homestead, now a restaurant.
Taking off his gloves he reached into his jacket and took out the sepia photo taken in 1869.
The Chief Inspector backed up a few paces, walked a couple to the right, then stopped. Looking from the photo to the reality and back again. His bare fingers were red and burning from the cold, but still he held the photo, to be sure.
Yes.
This was it, this was the exact spot where Patrick and O’Mara had stood 150 years earlier, on a sweltering summer day.
They’d been digging beneath the Old Homestead and something they found made the normally sullen men smile. Before it had been a restaurant the Homestead had been, as it sounded, a private home. And before that? It was a forest, or a field.
Or maybe, a graveyard.
The Old Homestead was now a greasy spoon. It had seen better days. Even bombardment by English cannons would have been better than what had become of it in recent years.
Waitresses, gamely wearing vaguely period costume, poured weak coffee into mass-produced white mugs. Hard, uncomfortable wooden chairs, made to look olde worlde, held tourists who’d hoped the charming exterior was a promise of a charming interior.
It wasn’t.
Mugs with coffee slurping over the rims were placed in front of Émile and Gamache. They’d managed to get a banquette of worn red Naugahyde, rips and tears repaired with shiny silver duct tape.
Gamache caught Émile’s eye. Both felt slightly ill as they looked at what had been done to a landmark. Old Quebec City had been fought over, the French valiantly defending their heritage, their patrimoine. They’d ripped it from the hands of the English time and again, only to ruin it themselves centuries later.
Still, it wasn’t what was inside that mattered to them now. It wasn’t even what was outside. What mattered to them was what lay beneath it. After ordering a simple breakfast of bacon and eggs the two men talked about the various theories. Their breakfast arrived, with a side order of home fries and baked beans. Surprisingly, the eggs were perfectly cooked, the bacon crispy and the pain de ménage actually homemade, warm and tasty. Once they’d finished and paid the waitress Gamache called her over again.
“I have one more request.”
“What is it?”
She was impatient. She had her tip and needed to go work for another, and another and enough to put a modest roof over her head and feed her children. And these well-off men were delaying her, with their nice clothes and aromas of soap and something else.